Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Came across this striking pale juvenile Common Buzzard this morning at Pyewipe; the plumage is well illustrated in the Collins Guide and in Dick Forsman's book , in the Handbook of Bird ID Beaman / Madge et al and in Benny Gensboll's Birds of Prey book as well as Lars Jonsson's Birds of Europe but I have only seemed to started seeing these birds in Lincolnshire in the last 7-10 years and they do seem to be occurring more frequently; at this site I saw a pale adult in October 2009 but do not spend a lot of time in the area so have probably missed them in intervening years; this juv was in the same area as two more typical plumaged birds so could they all have been from the same brood?
I have seen pale birds like this one at five different locations in recent years and one bird has been resident since at least 2008 and breeds each year but I have not seen any really pale young in the area -- I would be interested to hear whether these pale birds are appearing in Buzzard populations all around the country or if they are concentrated in the east and if anyone has any theories on why they seem to have suddenly appeared in Britain with such frequency. In the Collins Guide it says of the extreme pale birds found most frequently in the area from North Germany to Southern Sweden.
Always struggling today in 21C heat plenty of shimmer at the range these were taken

Monday, September 29, 2014

Having lived in Barton for 33 years and birded here for 43 my patch list is not too bad at 258 species with a few notable rares but Great White Egret was becoming a thorn in the side after a few recent sightings that I typically missed out on; in fact 2014 was becoming a poor patch year as I had added only three species between the end of May and the end of August with several regular species missing not to mention having not seen the recorded Gyr Falcon, Terek Sand and Great White Egret so the last few days have been a bit better with only my second ever Barton Hawfinch, the first was in April 1983, and a few expected additions like Grey Wagtail and Rock Pipit; on a murky and humid day a juv Gannet wandered up to the bridge this morning for a few laps of the Humber but my daily check of the local Golden Plover flock still failed to produce Dotterel or American Goldy (surely only time now) -- walking back to my car a white egret appeared over the quarry flying east; a casual glance to confirm it was a Little Egret was met with a striking bright yellow bill and long black legs! oddly it did not really look large to the naked eye being alone but it quickly dawned that I ought to wake up and have a better look at it-- got it in the scope as it dropped behind one of the innumerable and annoyingly omnipresent thorn hedges that surround all the clay pits but a quick jog saw it dropping into the blow wells ponds -- another sprint and formula 1 dash to Far Ings car park, out with the camera, only the 300mm lens on and no time to change it -- the egret was there standing in the pond but as I started to take a few distant images a local cob Mute Swan swam straight at the egret and in 30 seconds attacked it flushing the bird into the next pond -- another sprint and drive and I arrived just in time as a flock of Greylags flew in straight at the egret flushing it towards me, thanks but no thanks, so I blasted off two images before it went behind yet another hedge and in the next hour I failed to relocate it before the rain set in -- if they always receive such a welcome from the resident bully boys no wonder they don't stay around for long here
So a patch list addition but only the second in the last 4 years it gets harder -- and don't mention Spoonbill -- how can I possibly not have seen a Spoonbill here in 43 years?

really pleased to connect with a teneral Red-veined Darter on Clubley's -- another one took off and flew into the distance but this one sat in the same spot for 90 minutes and even waited until I went back to the car for my camera!